Daintree Rain Forest, Cairns
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We were up bright and early to catch the tour bus. A 13-seat 4WD van to take us up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rain Forest, with driver/tour guide Mark at the wheel. We were the 2nd and 3rd people on. Carly, from Austria was first. Then Peter and Steve from the UK, Virginie from Belgium, Ron and Joanne from Florida and Fern and his wife (whose name escapes me) who were French but living in Melbourne.
It was about an hour and a half trek up the coast around a beautiful bay north of Cairns. We passed by our campsite of two nights ago at Palm Cove and up into the Mossman Gorge in the southern part of the Daintree National Park. Well, after a brief stop at the mall in Port Douglas that is.
We went for a short walk through the rain forest and along a river that was rushing over large boulders. We walked up through the trees, ferns, palms, vines etc. up to a wooden suspension bridge across the river. The air was warm and muggy and the insects were loud but not swarming. We found a couple of forest dragons (Mark was adept at spotting them). And Mark found an electric green beetle that looked like something from a novelty shop. It did not look real at all. At one point, a butterfly landed on Les’ hat.
But the big moment on this walk was the ant butt licking. Yes, you heard that right. The forest has these green ants. Most ants use tannic acid to communicate but these ants use ascorbic acid (citric acid). So they give off a very strong lemony taste if you eat them or lick them. Mark found one and tried to hand it to two or three people, including me, who turned him down. But Les was game and took it by the head and licked his rear end. Confirming that yes indeed, they tasted like lemon. But I worry about this poor ant who had to go back to the ant hill and explain to his fellow ants what happened to him. “I’ve had the worst day. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…”
We worked up a good sweat with our brief walk, then headed back to the bus to head to the Daintree River for a boat tour. We spent about an hour cruising along the river banks looking for crocodiles, snakes, birds and trees. The boat driver knew where a baby croc was sitting and we went and saw it. About 2 feet long. They’re so cute at that age.
But shortly after, someone up front spotted a big male coming up the river. He was 15 feet long or more. Impressive. He swam up past us and continued up the river. Apparently he’s only number two on the river. Gummy is number one. Gummy and this one had a fight a few days ago that lasted a few hours and Gummy retained the heavyweight title in a unanimous decision. In fact, the boat driver said that Gummy had taken a cow off the river bank recently. A cow. He attacked and ate a cow. Geez.
We hooked up with our bus and headed for lunch at a fruit plantation. They grow all kinds of tropical fruits there and we sampled a large number of them. But first, a dip in the ol’ swimming hole. There was a river running through the property and there was a deep area where we could swim. It was cool and refreshing. The current was strong enough you could swim against it in place. We had to get out much too quickly to have lunch but it was quite good. I had a mangosteen and a rhumbatan which I liked a lot and a jackfruit which I did not like at all. But fun to experiment.
On the way out, Mark suggested we try our hand at didgeridoo playing and we managed to pull it off. Although with the didgeridoo, it’s hard to tell when you’re playing it and when you’re not.
After lunch, we went up to Cape Tribulation. The northernmost point we reached on our trip. As Mark pointed out, there are three things that make the Point special. First, it contains the oldest continuously evolving rain forest in the world. It started when Australia and Antarctica were still connected 150 million years ago and has continued to this day. Second, it’s the only place in the world where two World Heritage sites exist side by side — the rain forest and the barrier reef are right next to each other. And third, it has historic value as the point where Captain Cook “hit a crunchy” and his “tribulations” started. Nice word tribulation. If it was me it would be named Cape We’re Screwed. But that’s just me. A very pretty spot.
On our way to Cape Tribulation we passed the best example of local humor we’ve come across. The signs for speed bumps (or speed humps as they’re called here) looks like a speed bump cross section. On the road to Cape Tribulation, there is a place where there is a speed hump sign just above a “Beware of Cassowary” sign. Someone made a few modifications and added a “before” and “after” to them. Check the photos for the results. Virginie is showing them off.
On the way to our last major stop, we made a quick detour to the Daintree Ice Cream store for 4 scoops of homemade tropical fruit ice cream — mango, wattle seed, passion fruit and sour sop. I’m sure it was a scheduled stop, but even if it hadn’t been, there was a general consensus from those of us on board that stopping was required. We also stopped for pictures by a field where they were growing tea. I had never seen tea plants before.
Our last stop was the Jinbada rain forest where we took another hike. It’s fairly dark in there so there aren’t too many pictures. We saw some Huntsman spiders the size of the palm of your hand, and the golden orb spider whose web is so strong the US Army is investigating the material for bullet proof vests. We also saw huge king ferns, fan palms, and trees with huge buttress root structures to hold them up. As well as killer vines that wrap themselves around trees and basically choke them to death. Pretty cool.
We had been telling everyone about our web site and ended up handing out the URL to everyone by the end of the day. We tried to get a picture of everybody on the site but missed a few folks. Sorry Peter and Steve. You must have been hiding.
We finished up our day back in the hotel. We were sorting through the pictures in the lobby bar. Gary, the owner of the tour, was there again and we showed him the pictures we got. He seemed impressed. We gave him the URL as well and offered any of the pictures for his brochures.
The hotel staff was also interested in looking since this was now our second pass with pictures through the bar. Eve, who was working in the bar, learned we were heading for New Zealand and had no itinerary or good ideas for places to go. Since she was raised in New Zealand, she graciously offered to provide us with a short list of potential highlights. We designated her our New Zealand tour guide and took her picture for the web site.
All the people at the hotel were really great and we really enjoyed our stay there. If any of you are reading this, thanks for everything. It made our last days in Australia some of the best.
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